I'm still recovering from 5 days of hard, hot work on Stella Blue so I'll make this a short post.
Last week I flew from Salt Lake to Port Charlotte, Florida to spend a week on Stella Blue and install the new stainless steel portlights that we had ordered at the Miami Boat Show from New Found Metals. The replacement of the portlights was a great improvement in both the look and functionality to Stella Blue.
Now I need to go scrub my hands and try to get the rest of the black caulk off of them. Enjoy the photos and let us know what you think!
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| First was a stop at Wal*Mart for a weeks worth of food. I ate 12 PB&Js and wanted to go for 15 but my stomach started rebelling at 9. |
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| Here is what our old portlights looked like. This is the best one as most of them were cracked and leaking. |
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| I clamped a template to the removed portlight space, traced the area to be cut with a sharpie and used a RotoZip to cut through the cabin top. |
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| This is what it looked like with the port side portlights removed. |
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| This is the template in the head. Fiberglass dust went everywhere and since I was staying on the boat during the work, it made for some itchy nights until I could do a complete cleaning. |
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| All of the portlights were 4"x14" but the aft section of the cabin top had extra space and I wanted to try and squeeze in a 6"x15" on either side for more light and ventilation. This required a bit more cutting and fitting but worked out great as you can see in the next few photos. |
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| 6"x15" portlight over the galley. You can compare the 6"x15" size to the 4"x14" to the left (forward) and see how much bigger it is. |
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| Starboard side view before I have cleaned all the butyl and Life Caulk off of the portlights. |
